I was blind, but now I see... Amazing Grace

          

The Gospel lesson for Year A Lent 4 is the story of Jesus healing a man who had been blind from birth.  It is told in such detail that I can just imagine it on stage - perhaps as a high school drama production.  It would serve that venue well because there are so many characters in it, arrogant church leaders, nosy neighbors, mis-informed disciples, petrified parents, a blind beggar, and two cameos by a traveling Rabbi who clearly has stepped outside the norm of church operations.  Before you read any further follow this link in order to read the passage from John. 

The story is ripe with paradox.  Things are just not as they seem to be.  A blind beggar who has the audacity to instruct the church hierarchy in their own law, healed by a disappearing Rabbi who likes to play in the mud, and on the Sabbath too.  Shame! Shame!   What is this world coming to?  It seems that the restoration of this beggar's sight reveals more than the landscape.  This enlightenment reveals the spiritual blindness of all of those around him who are so caught up in their own manufactured world that they fail to see God's light shining in Jesus.

Being able to see requires that we disclaim all that we hold dear in order to claim life in Christ. We must turn our backs on our own self-centered path and follow Jesus into an unknown place where we are forgiven and where we are to be beloved of God.  It will be a relationship that is kindled through healing, through forgiveness, and through restoration.  Jesus tells us that things will come about through God’s actions, not through our adherence to old worn-out pre-conceptions or through our manipulation of events.  God must be a facilitator if the relationship is to be whole and those who want to be able to see clearly will need a change of heart that allows us to respond appropriately and faithfully when God calls us. 

 Buen Camino

Mother Jane